A New Hybrid Decision Making Approach for Housing Suitability Mapping of an Urban Area

In urban planning, housing evaluation of residential areas plays a critical role in promoting economic efficiency. This study produced an evolutionary-based map through the combination of hybrid Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM) and Geographical Information System (GIS) by assessing suitability of housing location. Suitable locations were modelled and determined with the present study from very low suitability to very high suitability. In the first stage, Fuzzy DEMATEL (the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) and Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolutionary Strategy (CMA-ES) under fuzzy conditions as a subjective and an objective (model-based) technique, respectively, were employed to find the weights of criteria which are critical part of decision making. In the second stage, housing evaluation map for these two approaches was drawn and their performances were classified and measured with WLC (Weighted Linear Combination) method. 29 criteria determined were prioritized as per judgment of urban planning and real estate experts for Fuzzy DEMATEL and CMA-ES. After having been coded to MATLAB for obtaining optimum weights in CMA-ES, all collected data for 160 houses were mapped as vectorial (positional) and transformed to raster (pixel) data by getting entered in ArcGIS 10.4 software. We achieved CMA-ES-WLC maximization values for 104 alternatives with (positive value) 65% performance, but we obtained FDEMATEL-WLC maximization values for 56 alternatives with (negative value) 35% performance. WLC values calculated with CMA-ES and FDEMATEL weights allowed us to conclude that the houses with the highest suitability in terms of investment are in Alpaslan, Kock, and Melikgazi streets. The result shows that the methodology used in the application of this study performed in Turkey is an important and powerful technology in providing decision support for spatial planning.